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The easy way to succeed at urban gardening A townhouse yard, a balcony, a fire escape, a south-facing window-even a basement apartment can all be suitable locations to grow enough food to save a considerable amount of money and enjoy the freshest, healthiest produce possible.
Urban Gardening For Dummies helps you make the most of limited space through the use of proven small-space gardening techniques that allow gardeners to maximize yield while minimizing space.
Offers guidance on pest management, irrigation and rain barrels, and small-space composting
If you're interested in starting an urban garden that makes maximum use of minimal space, Urban Gardening For Dummies has you covered.
Auteur
Paul Simon is a nationally recognized landscape architect, public artist, horticulturist, master gardener, and urban designer.
Charlie Nardozzi is a nationally recognized garden writer, speaker, and radio and television personality.
Contenu
Introduction 1
About This Book 1
Conventions Used in This Book 2
What You're Not to Read 2
Foolish Assumptions 3
How This Book Is Organized 3
Part I: Urban Gardening 101 3
Part II: Gardening Basics 4
Part III: Places and Ways to Garden 4
Part IV: Growing Plants in the City 4
Part V: Growing to Perfection 5
Part VI: The Part of Tens 5
Icons Used in This Book 5
Where to Go from Here 6
Part I: Urban Gardening 101 7
Chapter 1: Gardening in the City 9
Knowing the Basics of Soil Prep 9
Finding the Many Places to Garden the City 10
Growing All Kinds of Plants in The City 11
Trees and shrubs 12
Edibles 12
Annual flowers 13
Perennial flowers and roses 13
Lawns and groundcovers 14
Exploring the Down and Dirty of Growing 14
Weeding and mulching 15
Watering 15
Pest patrol 15
Chapter 2: Reaping the Benefi ts of Urban Gardening 17
Enjoying Local Produce from Urban Food Gardens 18
Looking at places to grow food 18
Checking out urban food gardening projects 19
Creating Healthy Cities 22
Reducing pollution 22
Making cities more livable 25
Improving the neighborhood 26
Chapter 3: The Urban Microclimate 27
The Sunny City: Working with the Sun and Warmer Urban Temperatures 27
Taking advantage of seasonal solar angles 28
Dealing with solar glare 29
Minimizing the Heat Island Effect 29
The Windy City: Working with Seasonal Urban Wind Patterns 32
Taking Macroclimate and Microclimate Conditions into Account in Your Garden 34
Knowing your hardiness zone 34
Considering your own microclimatic conditions 35
Part II: Gardening Basics 37
Chapter 4: Getting to Know Your Soil 39
Determining Your Type of Soil 40
Understanding the different soil types 40
Figuring out what you have 41
Checking Your Soil's Drainage 42
Performing a percolation test 43
Mastering the metal rod test 43
Discovering Your Soil's pH Level 44
Finding Out What Lies Beneath the Soil 45
Doing a little digging (literally and fi guratively) 46
Protecting yourself from soil contaminants 46
Chapter 5: Feeding and Fertilizing Your Soil 51
Organics 101: Plant Matter 52
Adding a Little Something Extra to Build Soil Fertility: Animal Manure 54
Making Compost and Growing Soil 56
Composting safely in the city 56
Choosing a container 57
Building your pile 58
Troubleshooting common composting problems 59
Composting with worms 60
Giving Your Plants and Soil a Boost with Fertilizers 62
Getting to know the "big three" in commercial fertilizers 62
Wet versus dry fertilizers 63
Applying a side dressing of fertilizer 65
Chapter 6: Getting Your Hands Dirty: Planting How-To 67
Planting Annual Flowers and Veggies 67
Starting with a raised bed 68
Deciding whether to buy seeds or transplants 70
Making a seed-starting schedule based on frost dates 71
Growing your own seedlings 73
Picking out transplants 74
Planting your annual or vegetable garden 75
Planting Trees and Shrubs 78
Buying a tree or shrub 78
Digging the hole and planting 79
Getting your trees and shrubs off to a good start 82
Planting Perennial Flowers, Bulbs, and Roses 83
Buying and planting perennial flowers 84
Buying and planting bulbs 84
Buying and planting roses 86
Part III: Places and Ways to Garden 89
Chapter 7: Creating an Outdoor Room 91
Analyzing Your Outdoor Space 92
Fencing In Your Space 92
Planning Your Outdoor Room 93
Creating Your Garden Entrance 93
Installing moon gates for a Zen-like feel 94
Showing off your space with garden arbors 95
Opting for other types of entry features 96
Defining the Uses for Your Outdoor Room 96
Creating a Focal Element 97
Using a unique plant 98
Creating serenity with a water feature 99
Going with a man-made feature 100
Turning Recycled Materials into Chic and Useful Garden Art 101
Using yard sale items 101
Repurposing materials (Reusing junk) 103
Considering Interactive Garden Art 104
A garden sundial 104
Music in the garden 105
Chapter 8: Containing Your Gardening 107
Surveying Container Options 107
Cool commercial containers 109
Hanging, balancing, and other interesting containers 110
Bathtubs, birdcages, bicycles, and more 111
Selecting Soil for Your Container 112
Planting a Container 113
Prepping your pots 114
Planting your containers properly 114
Jazzing Up Your Containers 116
Placing containers for visual interest 116
Coordinating colors 117
Cool container combos 117
Taking Care of Your Container Plants 119
Watering 119
Maintaining your containers 120
Moving containers 122
Chapter 9: A Garden with a View: The Rooftop Garden 123
Finding Out the Rooftop Gardening Basics 124
Why grow up? Reviewing reasons for planting on the roof 124
What's your type? Choosing a green roof or roof garden 125
How much is enough? Looking at your limits 126
What's next? Getting started and developing a plan 129
Designing a Rooftop Garden or Green Roof 131
Structural considerations: Making sure your roof won't cave in 132
Managing rainwater 133
Deciding what to grow 135
Planning electrical service and lighting 137
Transporting materials 137
Staying In Bounds with a Rooftop Container Garden 138
Chapter 10: Going Vertical in Your Garden 141
Discovering the Benefits of Growing Vertical 141
Facing the Challenges of Growing Vertical 142
Rethinking Your Space: Up, Down, and All Around 143
Getting Plants to Grow Up 144
Vertical structures: Providing a place to climb 144
Growing vertical veggies and fruits 150
Giving Containers a Lift 151
Understanding the special considerations for vertical container gardening 151
Choosing vertical containers 151
Chapter 11: Apartment Gardens 155
Balcony Gardens 155
Using containers on your balcony 156
Creating a picture frame garden 158
Using flowerbox planters 159
Indoor Gardening 161
Creating an indoor herb garden 161
Growing under lights indoors 163
Practicing indoor plant care and watering 164
Chapter 12: Community Gardening and Urban Farming 165
Community Gardening 101 165
A brief history of community gardening 166
How community gardening works 167
Starting a Community Gardening Program 167
Selecting a site 168
Developing your site 168
Organizing the garden 169
Managing the garden 169
Urban Farming = Urban Renewal 169
Benefits of gardening together 171
Avoiding down zoning 171
Marketing Locally 172
Selling produce at farmers' markets 172
Participating in farm-to-school initiatives 172
Selling to local restaurants 173
Hosting harvest festivals 173 …